


New Beginnings

by NovaZeroZero



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Explicit Language, F/F, Light Angst, Slow Burn, Tsunderes, alternative ending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-20
Packaged: 2020-10-25 01:04:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20715542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovaZeroZero/pseuds/NovaZeroZero
Summary: Post-game with slightly alternative ending. Mythra finds herself contradicted about all the events that happened, she is now free to live a normal life, but what is normal anyway? Mòrag x Mythra relationship slowly developing through the story. Possibly smut in the later chapters.





	New Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> I took a long break from writing, I had something else planned at first but this has been fresh on my mind and it felt good to write about this so I put my other fics on hold. 
> 
> I know the pairing is a bit unusual, main reason for pairing this couple is because they had a nice bond throughout the game and I thought I wanted to explore it a bit further. I still love Morag/Brighid pairing too but it's been done, it's obvious, and this felt more like my thing to write about. And thanks to both of these characters and their quirks, pairing them is fairly fun and easy. 
> 
> I try to explain my alternative ending in the story as well, but to simplify, Pneuma set all the Blades free, intentionally yes, but she genuinely thought the Blades would live happily ever after among humans. What she actually did was erased all of the Core Crystals, for various reasons, that I will not go into detail about, most of the Blades disappeared - whether this was of their own choosing or not, well, nobody knows. Some of them survived but the ether bonds that they shared with their Drivers are gone, I guess this was the intention of Pneuma. And similar to the real ending, she separated Mythra and Pyra from herself. 
> 
> The game lore has some open questions, the real ending left us with a lot of questions. I'm not trying to explain that in any way, this is just how I want to tell the story, that's it. I'm not a huge fan of any happy ending that doesn't serve a purpose. There will be happy ending in this, I promise, just a different one.

The cloud sea had vanished, along with the World Tree. Pneuma had set all the Blades free, her intentions were pure, but the outcome just happened to be more disastrous what anyone could have predicted. Most of the Blades vanished to thin air right in front of their Drivers, no more Core Crystals to bring anyone back. For those who had been lucky, like Dromarch and Nia, only difference seemed to be the loss of the ether connection they used to share. 

The group had decided to continue the search for the old colonies and survivors together. They were hoping to be about a day’s walk from where Argentum Trade Guild supposedly was before the cloud sea vanished. Travelling in a new inhabited terrain proved a bit slower than they expected, there were no established roads or paths to walk on, it was difficult to navigate and see further, the bottom of the cloud sea had been full of junk and now they had to navigate around big heaps of wreckage, keeping their guard up constantly in case of sudden attacks. This fear proved to be unfounded, most of the monsters had been living on the Titans, same as the people and hadn’t had time yet to spread to the newly exposed areas. 

One issue while travelling forth was also keeping Rex’s salvaging enthusiasm in check, he kept stalling the whole group constantly, stopping to rummage through the endless heaps of old junk. He did manage to find decent weapons for those who had lost theirs when their Blades had vanished, so it was not all useless. The whole situation left everyone feeling vulnerable in a whole new way, not having the same support and skills they used to have exposed them to many dangers they would have normally faced head on. All of them also seemed to have a deep understanding that mourning over the lost ones and losing their cool was to be saved for later for a more appropriate time, now the main focus was to find civilization and most importantly, food. They had gone through their reserves of snacks and travel supplies, they had hoped to find people already and hadn’t been very prudent when consuming their food in the beginning. Already a few days had passed since the incident at the World Tree, once they had to retrace their steps when they encountered a vast ocean of water that prevented them from pursuing the direction they were headed. 

The group, or what was left of the group, sat next to a fire they had set up earlier when the daylight started to fade. Mythra was examining the people around her carefully. Zeke, who usually lightened the mood with his stupid stories, had buried his head in his hands, elbows resting on his knees. _ I guess he has finally grasped reality, about time he showed some feelings Nobody can stay perky forever after losing someone so important. I wonder if he knows how sorry I feel for him. Would it change anything if I said it out loud? _

Pyra and Rex were having a quiet conversation, not paying attention to anything around them. _ Those two seem to be rather content with their situation. I guess they are lucky to have each other. Why am I not jealous? Why am I not scheming any lame remarks about how close they are? They are practically serving it on a silver platter, sitting there all lovey-dovey and ignoring everyone else… I guess this situation is getting to me too, even the obvious prospect of making Pyra feel uncomfortable doesn’t seem tempting enough... _

Nia was quietly staring at the fire, her loyal companion Dromarch sitting behind her, also staying very silent. _ I wonder if Dromarch was saved because Nia is a flesh-eater… Nah… Should be the other way around I guess. Doesn’t make any sense though, what makes Dromarch so different that this didn’t affect him? And why is she looking so gloomy, does she feel as guilty as I do about all of this? Can I just go over and give her a reality check too… HEY NIA, JUST IN CASE YOU HAVEN’T NOTICED, YOU STILL HAVE YOUR FAITHFUL COMPANION, SMILE A BIT, WOULDN’T YOU?!?! … Oh, but maybe it’s about her, she probably lost her Core Crystal too, now she’s worried she might drop dead any minute now… I could try to ask her about it, doesn’t feel like the right moment now though, does it? _

Tora was already sleeping and leaning against Poppi, who kept nervously looking over her shoulders but stayed quiet. _ Well, this is one is a no-brainer… I guess he’d be able to sleep even if I blasted the pile of junk we’re sitting on with my--- oh, right. I can’t even do that anymore. Geez, this really sucks. Not that I would have really blasted anything, but now I can’t even dream about it. Aargh… Can’t we just have everything the way it was, please. Can’t I just have a normal life? … What is normal life anyway? _

Mòrag sat a bit further from the others and she had not said anything the whole night, not since they decided to set up camp. _ I guess there’s another one who doesn’t know much about normal life. She has family, but treats the kid like he was some kind of big king and all, well, he is, but this subordinate shit is fucked up. Seriously fucked up. They are so far from being normal I don’t know if I’ve ever met anyone with so twisted relationship with their siblings. How old is she anyway? I think she mentioned that she was about 10 years older than Niall. Whoo, that’s still very young... That flamebringer business was cool though, if Brighid was still here, what would they be like now? Their relationship seemed very professional too, though I’m pretty sure there was more to it than just that. I wonder how long it’ll take for Lady Ladair to lose her cool about all this. Oh gawd, I hope she doesn’t hate me. Like seriously, this sucks. Why me? I never asked any of this… _

* * *

As the night got further, the air turned chilly and the fire had died out, small embers still emitting heat to the close vicinity of the campfire. Mythra decided to get up and find more wood, as she stood up, barely no one paid any attention or asked what she was up to. This made the uneasy feeling in her guts even worse, the feeling had been there since what happened in the World Tree and it got worse every passing moment and she couldn’t stop contemplating over the things that happened. Nobody had said anything to her directly, but she was sure some of them blamed her for everything that happened and that was not too far from the truth. She wished she had brought this up in the earlier conversations, more time passed, the more it felt like she was becoming the outcast of the party. 

_ Fine, you just stay where you are. I’m just leaving you all here, yep… Nope… Nothing… YEAH, I’LL BE JUST FINE! … No need to worry about me, no need at all… _

Night had fallen and it was fairly dark, the moon was the only source of light besides the faint glow of the fireplace. The morale in the camp had been so low that nobody really cared to gather extra firewood before it became too dark, now it proved to be a very difficult task, in the dark everything started to look the same one big mass of junk. Trying to pick up what looked like it could have been a branch of wood turned out to be bent scrap of metal, tossing it aside frustrated, Mythra hoped she had been a bit more careful when she heard the loud ‘clank’ break the silence. 

_ Great, now they think I’m throwing a tantrum… I am, though, this seriously sucks. There’s nobody around as far as we know, no reason why I shouldn’t just scream my lungs out and cry out how unfair all of this is. _

_ I did not do this, this is not my fault. _

_ Piece of shitmetal, again. _A loud ‘thunk’ when Mythra threw the piece she examined as far as she could. 

_ Not my fault. _

_ I did not choose to be me. _

_ I did my best to the very end. _

_ This is the thanks I get for saving everyone?! HOW CAN IT BE SO FUCKING DIFFICULT TO FIND ANY WOOD IN THIS GODFORSAKEN PLACE?! _Another violent ‘CLANK’ when the artefact flew in a beautiful arch across the sea of filth and landed on a bigger pile of junk. 

_ You can’t seriously all be blaming this shit on me. _

_ I never asked to be stranded on this fucking desert of endless crap. _

She continued sifting through small pieces of what she hoped would be flammable materials, setting a small pile on a rock of what she hoped would be suitable to keep the fire going. After noticing nobody cared if she blew off some steam, she kept throwing junk around more violently than needed, hearing the loud clanking sounds after throwing shit around actually made her feel better. Soon enough she heard rustling sounds of someone approaching from the campsite. Mythra felt an urge to scream to whomever was approaching to leave her alone, but decided to take a few long breaths, controlled herself and continued her search. 

“Ahem, sorry to interrupt your… whatever this is, I just wanted to know if you need any help? I was getting tired of sitting in the silence over there,” Mòrag’s soft voice had a slightly amused tone. Mythra was examining a strangely shaped object in her hands, mirroring the reflections against the moonlight and trying to figure out if it was useful. She still kept her back turned to Mòrag, a bit afraid of how she’d react and what she might say if she opened her mouth.

_ Shit, I feel stupid. Here I am raging around crying for attention, like she doesn’t have more pressing matters on her mind. She did lose Brighid, after all… _

“Ah, that seems to be an ordinary army issued drinking bottle, a lot of that kind of junk around here. We might be passing an old battleground or a sunken battleship,” Mòrag said, stepping closer and snatching the object she identified as a bottle from Mythra’s hands. “If I had to guess, based on our probable location and some faded insignias I saw on our way, this area we are standing on used to be an old Tornan battleship, possibly many battleships. In the great battle of…” 

“The great battle where I released a major shitstorm on humankind?” Mythra snapped, talking about the old war always got her on her toes. 

“I-I did not mean… I didn’t mean to bring it up,” Mòrag said, taking a step back from Mythra.

Mythra spun around, frustrated that the old war was dragged into the whole ordeal she was already dealing with. 

“If you all have something against me, why don’t you just come up to me and say so? I can’t really blow anything up anymore, so it should be relatively safe now, don’t you think?” Words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself. The uneasy feeling was getting unbearable, she felt like running away would be a great course of action, but it was dark and there was nowhere to run to. 

“No, that’s not what I…” Mòrag started, but couldn’t finish her sentence before Mythra continued her outburst again,

“You guys haven’t said anything, _ anything, _ to me for the past few days. How am I _ not _ supposed to think you are blaming this all on me?” Tears started to burn in the corners of her eyes, “Nobody has even looked at my direction, let alone spoke to me since we came back.”

_ Fuuuuu.. Just hold it back! Do not fall apart in front of her! Not now! _

“I think everyone has been occupied with their own thoughts, we did lose a lot of our loved ones and there is a lot of uncertainty of what has happened to everyone else,” Mòrag clearly did her best to sound diplomatic and calm the flustered blonde. 

_ Right… I made all of this about me again, GOD, why am I so pathetic. There she is, trying to make me feel better when the void I caused when I made Brighid disappear must be eating her alive. I feel so stupid. I have no right to lash out on her like this.. Just calm the shit down... _

“I, uhh, I just felt like… I don’t know anymore,” Mythra said quietly, sniffling slightly and turned her gaze to some uninteresting junk on the ground. “I feel like I’m the only one responsible for everyone’s losses, but I didn’t…” her voice cracked when she continued, “...I never asked to be me.” She soon felt strong arms around her and she was pulled closer to the surprisingly soft fabric of Mòrag’s uniform. 

_ Great job holding back, me. _

“It’s all going to be OK,” Mòrag said softly, holding the sobbing girl in her embrace. 

_ It’s going to be OK? Oh really? You’re gonna make it OK? Who’s gonna make it OK? When are they going to fix this? Why do people keep saying ‘It’s gonna be OK’ when it’s not?! _

_ You could’ve just said “Bitch, I have absolutely no idea how to comfort you when you act like this so I’ll keep spouting non-sense to get you to calm the fuck down.” _

_ Not very Lady Ladair -like thing to say, I guess. _

_ … well, this is actually fine. She doesn’t hate me or blame me for anything. Or at least she has some decency not to admit it right now, if she does. _

Perhaps it was the soothing tone, the other one’s presence or the deadly silence around them that made the last of the remaining anxiety Mythra had been feeling just melt away. Whatever it was, focusing her attention to mundane details on Mórag’s uniform seemed to have a very strong soothing effect. _ This must be some crazy expensive fabric… What is this fabric even made of?? It’s emitting heat… It doesn’t have any distinguishable scent about it either. Should probably ask about it, can’t do it now, though, can I? _

“We are not going to survive if we turn against each other, we should talk about this with everyone if it’s bothering you this much,” Mòrag broke the silence. Mythra awoke from her idle thoughts.

“Do you _really _think it’s a good idea, it could turn out to be a hot mess,” the blonde stepped away and dried her eyes, she was convinced everyone held a grudge against her for the recent and past events. 

“Maybe, but it’s a conversation that we need to have, better sooner than later,” the reasonable Lady Ladair stated out. “Now then, I’m guessing you did not come here to throw stuff around for fun, the fire is dying out and it’s getting cold.” 

“I did try to find stuff to burn,” Mythra said, pointing at the sad pile gathered on top of a large rock. Mòrag did her best to muffle the chuckle trying to escape her throat but her change of demeanor was noticed by the disheartened blonde, “Don’t you dare to laugh at me, I really tried!”

“Oh, yes, I heard you trying _ really _hard from the campsite,” the dark haired woman was not hiding her amusement anymore. Mythra tried her best to look offended.

_ This piece of work actually made me feel better about all this, how dare she? She might just be the most mature of this bunch, huh... _

“Well, if _ you _ are so smart, why don’t you whiff us some firewood, then?” Mythra answered back, with a much lighter tone. 

“Well, certainly. Could you give me a hand with this…” Mòrag had already grabbed a long metal bar lying on the ground and was placing it between a small crack in what again, seemed to be just a huge heap of scrap. Mythra grabbed the end of the bar and both pried the heavy metal lid open. As soon as the metal plate flew off, something started creeping out of the hole.

“EEEEEEEHHH, what the hell is that?!” Mythra shrieked and jumped behind Mòrag. 

“Dinner!” Mòrag declared, sounding rather thrilled when she lifted the metal bar, took careful aim and pierced the creature that had just crept out of its hiding place. “So that’s taken care of and it’s not going anywhere, let’s see what we have here…”

“Wait… That’s a lot of books!” Mythra peeked inside the container they had just opened, still standing behind Mòrag. “Books will burn!” _ Geez, of course they will burn, why do I have to sound like an idiot, and standing behind her like a coward, too. _

“Well… yes. Are you OK?” Mòrag was looking over her shoulder with a rather curious look on her face. “The scary thing is dead now, you can come out.”

“Ha, ha, ha. Very funny, it was dark and I haven’t seen another living thing for days, so I wasn’t exactly prepared…” Mythra mumbled under her breath. Had it been daylight, her bright red face would have been more obvious. _ What the heck is it with this person that makes me act like this… Come on, Mythra, you can do this. Just. Act. Normal. _ “Ahem, so I guess we take our little spoils of war here back to the camp.” 

Mythra grabbed the metal pole holding the pierced creature in the other end, heaved it up on her shoulder and started walking towards the camp nonchalantly. Mòrag stared after her for a while, shook her head and grabbed a big pile of old books and joined the stubborn blonde. A small smile formed in the corner of her mouth when she watched the girl in the front exaggeratedly treading through the rubble on the ground.


End file.
